UB And NYIT Split Saturday ECC Baseball Doubleheader

Old Westbury, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport baseball team split a road East Coast Conference doubleheader with the host NYIT Bears on Long Island on Saturday afternoon, as the Purple Knights won game one, 6-1, and the Bears took the nightcap, 3-0. With the split, Bridgeport is now 6-29 overall and 3-11 in conference action. NYIT moves to 8-20-1 overall and 4-14 in the ECC.

In the opener, the Purple Knights used the long ball and an excellent start from sophomore Jason Burger (Orlando, Fla.) to earn the victory.

Senior Daren Grabowski (Berlin, Conn.) led off game one with his eighth home run of the season, and junior Mark Hirschbeck (Trumbull, Conn.) who finished with three runs batted in the opener, launched a two-run shot in the second inning, his third homer of 2018, plus sophomore Alex Rauso (Trumbull, Conn.) added a solo homer in that same inning, h second big fly of the season.

UB graduate student Tom Rinaldi (Waterbury, Conn.) added two hits and one RBI for the winners in game one.

On the mound, Burger was outstanding firing a nine-inning, complete game in which he scattered 10 hits while fanning three and issuing only one walk. Jason is now 2-2 on the season.

In game two, UB was limited to only five hits, and freshman Anthony Martino (West Sayville, N.Y.) picked up another hard-luck loss, as he pitched a complete game, allowing only one earned run with three strikeouts and no bases on balls.

UB and NYIT will close out their weekend ECC series on Sunday with a doubleheader at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.